Fishing was a major topic of conversation yesterday as the fmaily foregathered for a holiday feast. My nephew Darrin is a BASS tourney guy, now good enough to be cashing some checks.

He is a technological angler. Maybe one of the last sportfishers whose passion for the sport was born from actual understanding of the way nature works.

He has all the toys needed to compete professionally, including that damnable forward facing sonar. But when Darrin showed me what an AI driven Google search can do for an angler discovering the joy and challenge of fishing ‘new’ water it forced me to ponder continuing with this blog and write one more book taking a deep dive on all popular fish species on the upper Miss and how to catch them under different conditions throughout the year.

There is some comfort in knowing any river is more challenging than deciphering a fish catching program on the average lake. This enigmatic proposition is true in SPADES on the Upper Miss, where nearly seven decades of experience which began on the shoulders of three previous generations of true River Rats has simply provided a good base from which to start fishin’.

With an AI driven Google search of a specific fishery the techno angler is about to step off the fly section of an extension ladder on to a roof over a raging house fire with zero knowledge about placement of the ladder rungs which brought him to the roof in the first place.

Darrin told me to pick a lake–any lake–and tell him the general conditions and species being sought. I selected 7000 acre Crab Orchard Lake in southern Illinois where i chased crappies dozens of times under cloudy skies with mid-40s water and ambient temps in the fall until moving way up the River about 20 years ago.

Darrin’s shiny object query told him where to start fishin’ , what baits/colors to use…and even which coves and causeways would likely be most productive….sort of like waking up on 3rd base believing you just hit a triple.

Darrin said that AI essentially takes in every word that was ever spoken or published about late November crappie fishing on a cloudy day on Crab Orchard Lake and compressed it into the nut of things on his shiny object.

Why should I write a book which includes precise information on catching trophy walleyes on the upper Mississippi River under threatening skies the day after Thanksgiving which ambient temps below freezing and water temp just five degrees warmer?

I will be out there shortly after posting this blog, prepared to deal with unspoken hazards and situations should they arise goaded by sometimes painful experience from a lifetime on this water.

This part of the equation would not be available to the techno angler about to step off that allegorical top ladder rung on to a roof over an inferno planning to vent the roof with saw, axe & pike…not talking northerns here, kids.

Almost all access points to the walleyes on Pool 9 will be covered with ice by Monday with the probable sitution we’ll be lightfooting out there with hardwater gear by Dec. 10–the 1st day we were able to get out there in 2024.

If your shiny object says its time to waltz out there with the short sticks I hope AI tells you to fill the hand which holds the screen with an ice spud…just sayin’